Do You Want to Get Married? — A Harry Potter Fanfiction


Disclaimer: I do not profit from this work of fiction; I am just a fan who enjoys wondering about the plot-holes left by the original author.

And remember kids, reviews are always welcomed.

Sean


Chapter Two: Taking my money while kicking your ass to the curb.

"It has been six years since we won the war, but you continue to behave as if we still fifth years at Hogwarts!" Hermione finish on yell as she slammed the morning issue of the Prophet down on the Weasley's dining room table in front of Ron. "When are you going to grow up, Ron?" You cannot continue to play angry youth forever!"

It was Sunday morning, the day after the disastrous ball at Malfoy Manor. Hermione had shown up a few hours before the brunch armed with the newspaper whose front page was a wild-eyed Ronald Weasley and an embarrassed Hermione and Harry.

The article was scathing. Hermione and Harry were painted as helpless simpletons trying to control a raging lunatic at the Malfoy Spring Gala.

"People are tired of your bad behaviour and your excuses." She shouted after Ron as he stood from the table and walked away from her. "They are of tied of you, Ron, and I am tired of you, too."

"Just leave it, Hermione." Molly attempted to admonish the younger woman, "You know how Ron feels about the Malfoys. The poor dear blames them for what happed to our Fred. You have to be patient with him."

Turning her glare on the rotund older woman, Hermione bit out, "Ronald is not a child, Molly. He is an adult, and it is high time he begins to behave like one. It's rather disconcerting how you always trot out Fred as excuse every time Ronald behaves like a lunatic in public. It's a pathological especially when one considers that your poor dear knew where we going last night. He knew. If it was such a terrible mental burden for him, then why did Ronald agree to attend with me? Ginny refused to attend with Harry, so why couldn't Ron just tell me no?" She demanded.

"Ronald is passionate," Molly began to continue her blustering defense of her child, but Hermione cut her off.

"Another excuse," she scoffed. "I heard it all when we were children. Ron is the "Emotional One" of "the Golden Trio", he's our bloody heart, etcetera, etcetera—which is basically bullshit." Looking around the dining at all those freckled faces that she once held so dear, Hermione realized that she was wasting her time and life. "Ron may not respect himself it very plain that he does not respect me."

A look of horror crossed Molly's florid face as the implications of what Hermione was saying donned on her. Her red, swollen hands grabbed at Hermione as the younger woman started to walk away from the table.

"Ronald loves you, Hermione." Molly cried desperately, "But he's grieving for his brother and the Cannon's won't have him. If he loses you— "

"He will lose a crutch, and you are afraid that will finally make him grow up." Hermione said cruelly. "I have wasted enough time with him. Ronald refuses to be what I need in a man and I am tired of being his crutch and his purse."

"So you will walk away from your family, the people who love you?" Molly shrilled frantically. "If you walk away, Hermione, we will never forgive you!"

Picking up her purse, Hermione walked away from the table. "I have been more than patient with Ronald, Molly. I support him financially; the money he gives to you comes from me. I know that you are the one telling Ron not to sign the prenuptial agreement and I have to thank you for that, Molly. Had Ron signed it, I would have been married to this family, having my soul sucked from my body while you drained my inheritance. It took me far too look to accept that a relationship with Ron was a failure, even longer to accept that it wasn't my fault. I wanted him to be someone Ron Weasley could never be."

"And what is that?" Molly demanded, "Other than a man who loves you, what more do want from my son?"

"A man." Hermione told her, "If Ron really loved me, he would support me and not tear me down. He would understand that I need a man who is my equal and try to become it. Instead Ron has become a churlish, dissatisfied boy who blames everyone, including me, for his failures and lack of success in life." She looked down at the ring in her finger, her engagement ring. It had been in her family for three centuries. When Ron asked her to marry him, he didn't have a proper ring. He borrowed one of Ginny's silver rings and said it was a promise. He promised to one day buy her the biggest diamond ring and then he ruined the moment by saying the Malfoy's would be jealous of the thing. "Last night was Ronald's final chance to prove he would change, and as usual, he failed."

The war was over and the world was moving on but the Weasleys seemed stuck in the past and Hermione had finally had enough.

Ron had become was a running joke around town with him constantly saying that he was Harry Potter's best friend, people would yell out they were "Harry Potter's-insert your comment here". She put up with it, endured all the gossip because she though Ron would finally become the man she wanted him to be but her patience had grown thin until it final snapped.

Hell, Ron did not have a job, and at one point, Hermione was fine with that.

Some people had to find their way in the life, she was sure that with time, patience, and her love, Ron would realize his own ambitions, adult ambitions, and do something about them. Instead of attempting to do something productive with his life, Ron went about hunting the press and making a general ass of himself.

Last night was the end for her.

Ron had done everything he could do embarrass and ruin her and Harry in the eyes of the public by carrying on his one-sided rivalry with Draco Malfoy and she was not going to do it anymore.

She found Ron outside in Molly's overrun vegetable patch chasing the gnomes that were stealing potatoes and cabbages.

Seeing him like this seemed to prove everything her grandfather said about them. Ron disliked being in the Muggle World, he hated to travel, and derided anything that wasn't simple English country fare. Everything she once thought was charming and unpretentious about him, Hermione now recognized as the uncouth manners of an impertinent ne'er–do–well and it was a time she put an end to this farce of a relationship.

Shortly after sitting down for brunch, Lucius announced that he invited the Greengrass women to Narcissa's garden party.

Draco sipped his coffee while his mother reminded Lucius that the party was for the Civic Trust for Great Britain's Wizarding Society. Their membership was exclusive, not even Lucius was a member, but Narcissa had become a member shortly after her marriage and she was currently the Chairwoman.

"…and for that matter," Narcissa continued scathingly, "You are buying that girl jewelry."

"The goblins refuse to bring me any jewelry from our vaults." Lucius hissed like a petulant child, "It has fallen to me to do all the work of courting Astoria since our son cannot be bother to attend to his fiancée."

"That trollop is hardly Draco's fiancée?" she scoffed, "She is very much your mistress."

"To what do you imply, Narcissa?" he demanded. "I have been nothing but faithful to you."

"Only because you cannot leave our home and the witches employed here cannot be in left with you after you dared to attack the upstairs maid." She scoffed.

"You have mudbloods in my house!" He screamed.

"They are wizards and witches the same as us." Narcissa shot back. "And as we both are aware this is my son's house. You lost the right to make any decisions regarding this family when you decided to fall on your knees to worship that diseased lunatic."

"I am doing all that I can to restore our family's honor and bring us back into society's graces without any assistance from either of you." Lucius told her.

"How?" Narcissa demanded, "By attacking our muggle born maids?"

"By uniting our family with the Greengrasses, another pure-blood family will improve our social standing with the other families. We need to rebuild our connections and we can do so with the Greengrasses. They were neutral in the war and they never publically connected to the Dark Lord."

"Claude and Vivian were supporters of the Dark Lord, everyone knew that." Narcissa told him. "They were just as fanatically as you and the rest of the so-called Inner Circle."

"The only ones that would benefit from this proposed union would be the Greengrass family," Draco drawled lazily.

"How so?" Lucius asked, it was obviously he did not believe Draco.

Putting aside his weekend journal, Draco met his father's gaze. "Claude Greengrass is deeply in debt. His company will be declared bankrupt next month due to years of mismanagement and Claude's refusal to modernize. All of Greengrass Brokerage Firm major clients have pulled out along with the smaller investors. I stopped using them while I was at Hogwarts shortly after the eldest girl, Daphne Greengrass, now Mrs. Vincent Goyle II, let slip how her father was embezzling from his clients. We were paying for their daughters' pretty dresses and Claude's mistress townhouse while you were licking Tom Riddle's ass."

"How dare you." Lucius growled.

"Do you wish deny it?" Draco asked as he refilled his coffee cup. "You spent all of my childhood and adolescence telling me what it meant to be a Malfoy only for to you to turn out to be sniveling little bitch cowering before a mad half-blood. Must be a comfortable position for you, father? You were Voldemort's bitch and now you are Astoria Greengrass's bitch. Congratulations."

"You wish to insult me?"

"I don't have to insult you, Lucius," Draco drawled, "You insult yourself. You are a sniveling coward without a hint of self-respect. You raped and murdered defenseless Muggles who knew nothing about the magical world to make yourself feel like a man and you were so disappointed when I found no pleasure your repulsive lifestyle. Mother is right, you have no say in my life nor will you decide whom I will make my wife. I do not need Astoria Greengrass; it is she and her family that needs me. While you pretend that you are still lord of the manor playing your childish games, Mother and I have restored our family name while making stronger political connections without having to resort to your infantile schemes. Through my guidance and dedication to the Malfoy name, I have undone everything you sought to do to destroy our line and fortune. I don't need Astoria Greengrass, I am Draco Malfoy and unlike you, Lucius, I don't need anyone to make me a man."

Hermione decided to get ahead of the Weasleys by announcing the end of her relationship with Ronald Weasley in a series of quick interviews that Sunday afternoon.

Under normal circumstances, Hermione would have been hard pressed to reveal anything about her personal life to the press but if she wanted to spare her reputation from the malicious slander that was sure to come from the Weasley and Prewitt families, Hermione had to get her side of the story out first.

That Sunday after leaving the Burrow, Hermione sat down for tea with the society columnist for the Daily Prophet. Rita Skeeter was a Voldemort sympathizer. Her hatred of Muggleborn wizards and witches was obvious in every article she wrote. Skeeter's vitriolic persecution of Hermione in her column that ended Skeeter's career and sent her to prison. The Protection of Children Act of 1978 applied to Wizarding Great Britain. Skeeter and the previous publisher, another Voldemort sympathizer, were charged with the crimes of taking, or permitting to be taken, any indecent photograph of a child under the age of sixteen. Skeeter's most scandalous articles included altered photographs that depicted a fourteen and fifteen-year-old Hermione in an erotic pose or in a non-penetrative sexual act with either Harry or a then seventeen-year-old Victor Krum who was considered an adult by British law.

Skeeter never stood a chance before the Lord Magistrate. Skeeter was found to be danger to society, muggleborns, and especially to Hermione Granger. So far, Skeeter was six years into her fifty-year sentence.

Rita Skeeter no longer worried Hermione, none of the old fears and prejudices were much of a concern to the muggleborns and Squibs due to social changes made by people like Lady Narcissa Malfoy and her son, the Marquess Malfoy.

Hermione found it ironic that her former schoolyard bully was leading the social revolution to change the minds Wizarding society about Muggleborn wizards and witches.

The reporter from Witch Weekly brought up the young lord while plying Hermione with cake and coffee. Blushing, Hermione admitted Lord Draco was very handsome, but she went on to say she valued intelligence more than looks. Wanting to enrich the lives of others along with caring for their community were attractive features for her. It was why her relationship with Ronald Weasley fell apart.

Ronald Weasley was a blowhard who refused to change with the times. He was stuck in the firmly in the past that benefited no one who was not the same as him. When asked to clarify what she meant, Hermione just shook her head and said, "A Gryffindor."

"…and so, Harry Potter's best mate disgraceful temper tantrum at the Orphans of War charity event was not about the Marquess Malfoy's having been forced to be a Death Eater as a child, it was because his Lordship had been sorted in Slytherin House while at Hogwarts." Blaise Zabini finished reading the page seven continuation of the front-page announcement in the Prophet. "All these years and I thought Weasley was just and ass, but turns out, he's just as brain-washed as those old Death Eaters he enjoys ranting about." He tossed the paper on Draco's desk as he leaned back in the comfortable leather chair that he jokingly called 'The Throne'. He looked over at his best mate who was lounging on the leather sofa with his files spread out around him and his laptop computer propped up on his crossed right knee. "Granger's still looking fit, much better now that she's dropped that dead weight."

When Draco did not comment, Blaise began to spin around in the chair. The dark paneled walls of the spacious room would have been forbidding if not for the bookcases and artwork on the walls. While Lucius was sitting in prison and Draco was attending to his schooling, Narcissa had been at the helm of MI Corporation. She had changed Lucius's unused office, bringing in her favorite pieces from her home to decorate the office. When Draco stepped in shortly after leaving Balliol College at Oxford University the only thing he changed was the desk and chairs. Those were things he brought from his university flat, which had been decorated by his mother.

Blaise himself chose not to pursuit a further education after leaving Hogwarts. He, like most of his classmates chose to start on their lives, or in case of the wealthy ones, start spending their inheritances. Blaise was one of those spending his inheritance. He managed to get married two years after leaving Hogwarts to a Moroccan beauty who bore him a son. Giovanni was now four and right terror except when faced with Narcissa. Wife number two was a French witch in every sense of the word, had borne Blaise two daughters, and they were in Paris with her fourth husband. Wife number three, a delicate little thing from Japan, was currently preparing to deliver Blaise's second son. Asako seemed to be a keeper after Salima, who died giving birth to Giovanni.

"Asako wanted to know if you would drop by for dinner. Gio is being a bit of a handful and my dear wife needs her rest."

"That is why you should have a nanny for the boy," Draco told him.

"Gio loves spending time with his Uncle Draco." Blaise countered with dashing smile. "Say you will come. I'll have Cook prepare that lemon cheesecake you enjoyed last time you were over."

Pity it did not work on Draco, "You will have to spend time with your son without me," he told him. "I am escorting Penelope Bainbridge to the opera and we are having dinner at Foundry tonight. Sorry mate."

"You are blowing me off so you can get blown? What the hell, man. My kid's a brat, my wife is big as house, I need help."

"Get a nanny."

"What kind of friend are you?"

"The kind that has a life of his own," Draco murmured as he opened another file. "Now, if you don't mind, Blaise, I have a meeting in the next hour with some very important people, and I as much as I enjoy your company, I would prefer that you leave so I that I can prepare for it."

Two years ago, Pansy Parkinson returned to the Wizarding World with little fanfare or notice to her former friends from her days at Hogwarts. At the end of the Wizarding War, Pansy fled the Wizarding world, when she returned she had a degree in Culinary Arts from Le Cordon Bleu Chicago, the experience of working with one of the best chefs in the States. She had worked her way up from line cook to Sous-Chef de Cuisine in a small bistro in one of Chicago's northern suburbs. While there, Pansy met and married a Muggle. Her marriage ended in divorce and she was granted full custody of her daughter Miranda.

Pansy returned to England because her half-blood daughter was witch. Matthew, Pansy's former husband could not deal with a magical daughter, so he did not fight for custody. The magical communities in the U.S. were in places like the Northeast and the Northwest. Instead of going to either place, Pansy sent her resume to several restaurants in the UK and France before receiving a call from the owner of Foundry who was looking for an Executive Chef.

Foundry was on the verge of closing its doors. The menu was outdated and all the chefs, while wizards, had not evolved in a hundred years.

Pansy's seasonal menu that specialized in local foods and fresh seafood was a hit in Wizarding London. Foundry was the restaurant were the wealthy, famous, and infamous dined. It took months to land a reservation, not even the Harry Potter could easily get a table. Then Harry Potter was not Pansy's first love or even a friend.

Draco had a reserved table in the back that he used for business meals and to impress his dates. So imagine his surprise when saw Hermione Granger seated two tables away with an old Muggle.

Pansy, dressed in her chef's white, Birkenstock and fuzzy green socks, followed her pastry chef out carrying a small cake as the wait staff sang "Happy Birthday" to the old man.

Hermione was very pretty in her rose print silk dress. Her hair braided in a cornet and she wore a band of small silk roses in her hair. Granger was clapping her delicate little hands as she sang along with staff before leaning over to give her grandfather a hug. She smiled at Pansy, who happily returned the smile with her own grin before she returned to kitchen. Before she left, Pansy had posed for a photograph with the Grangers.

Draco didn't know that the two women were on speaking terms, much less friendly enough for Pansy to want to be photographed with the two Muggles, but Draco was sure he would get the story from Pansy when they had lunch on Wednesday. But for now he would be content to watch Granger in her pretty dress while Miss Bainbridge got him off underneath the table.


Enjoy.